


There's Just Something About Darcy

by Phlinting



Series: Slow Burn [2]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/M, M/M, Multi, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-08
Updated: 2016-08-08
Packaged: 2018-08-07 10:31:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,701
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7711579
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Phlinting/pseuds/Phlinting
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Several months of bliss-filled, soulmate one-on-one action later, life has settled into a fairly comfortable routine for Steve and Darcy. Steve goes on missions, Darcy works with Jane while he's gone, and when he gets home they lock themselves away and enjoy each other's company.</p><p>But a mission in DC is about to change everything...</p>
            </blockquote>





	There's Just Something About Darcy

**Author's Note:**

> As has become my habit lately, I'm in complete denial of the latest movie (the one that did not happen because my heroes DO NOT fight each other) so the Avengers and their significant others are all living in Stark Tower and getting along just fine. 
> 
> **(Rated M for language and brief mention of possibly suicidal thoughts) ******

_~*~_

"How was DC?" Darcy asked as nonchalantly as she could when her soulmate finally walked in the door of their apartment in Stark Tower.

"Fine," Steve answered, apparently deciding she lived under a rock. The whole freaking thing had played out on the Internet and TV. If Natasha hadn't been with him and giving Darcy hourly updates, Darcy would have stormed the damn hospital. It had only been Natasha's plea for her to not put herself in danger by revealing her relationship with Captain America that had kept her in New York. Giving Steve's enemies an easy way to hurt or control him through his soulmate was not her idea of a good time.

But not telling her he was injured wasn't acceptable. "And you were going to tell me about the bullet wounds...when exactly?"

"Darce," Steve said shaking his head and reaching for her. She went willingly, glad to have him home and healed. She'd spent every moment of his recovery time silently thanking Dr. Erskine for creating the super-soldier formula and for choosing Steve as the recipient. "I didn't want to worry you."

"Yeah, because finding out from the Internet was  _so_ much better," she said in a deadpan voice. Okay, so she'd probably spent too much time talking with Natasha over the past week.

"I'm sorry, Darce. I really am, but"—he hesitated, wrapping his arms more fully around her as if he was afraid she might run away—"there's something important I need to tell you."

"Oh...um...sure," she said, urging him slowly toward the sofa so that she could crawl into his lap. She'd found the serious conversations were easier for him if he was able to completely surround her with his huge body.

"The guy who shot me...his name is Bucky. He was my best friend. We grew up together." He swallowed painfully. "Even when I had nothing, I had Bucky." 

Darcy nodded. She already knew the Winter Soldier's identity thanks to Natasha. What she didn't know was why Steve felt it was something that might upset her.

"It wasn't Bucky's fault," she said in a reassuring tone. "What Hydra did to him..." She shuddered, unable to forget the scant few details Natasha had given her on the torture Bucky had somehow survived. "We'll find him and we'll help him, Steve. It'll be okay."

"Thank you," Steve said, exhaling a relieved breath before dragging in another. "I'm really grateful that you understand that he's not to blame, but it's not the whole of what I need to tell you."

"Oh?" She had no idea where this conversation was going, until he lifted her hand and traced her fingers over the second set of soul words on his arm. They'd never faded so she'd assumed they were Peggy's, but a few things were starting to fall into place in her mind. "Bucky's?" she asked softly.

Steve nodded, his arms tightening around her again as if he expected her to run. It was obviously a shock to learn that his other soulmate wasn't nearly one-hundred years old, but it didn't make her love Steve any less, and it certainly didn't remove her willingness to help Bucky. 

She was about to tell him so when she remembered Steve's aversion to her when he'd thought she was Thor's soulmate. Did he have something against having two soulmates? Was he about to toss her aside and run back to his  _real_ soulmate? Fuck, did she mean so little to him?

"I'll understand if you want to leave," Steve said, breaking her heart all over again. "I should have told you about Bucky. It was just... We had to hide it back then and that sort of became a habit."

"Do you want me to leave?" Darcy asked in a small voice.

"Hell, no," Steve said immediately, his arms tightening to the point of actual pain. He eased up at her first tiny squeak, but he didn't let go. "God, Darce, I'm so sorry. I always seem to say the wrong thing to you. I love you, sweetheart. No matter what happens with Bucky, that's never going to change."

She cuddled closer, glad to know that he didn't want her to leave, but still a little unsure of how to proceed. "Why did you freak out when you thought I was Thor's soulmate?"

"Oh, Darce, I should have explained that long before now too." He ran a hand down his face tiredly. "Did I mention that I really suck at communicating in relationships?"

Darcy laughed softly. "I'm beginning to figure that out. Was it because having two soulmates was frowned upon before the war?"

Steve kind of laughed at that. "Plenty of things were frowned upon back in the forties. It didn't actually stop anyone though. It just wasn't talked about."

"Like same-sex soulmates?"

"Yeah," Steve said, blushing slightly. "We're pretty sure the Howling Commandos figured it out, but judging by the history books, none of them ever said anything." He placed a finger under her chin and urged her to make eye contact. "The thing with Thor was more...unique in a way. After the Battle of New York, he told us all about his human soulmate and how she would be a princess of Asgard,  _actual_ royalty. When I met you that first time, you'd told the receptionist you were Thor's soulmate, so when you said my words, I couldn't reply." He ran a finger down her cheek and she closed her eyes against the tears that threatened to fall. "I refused to do that to you. There was no way I wanted to make your life harder by giving you soulmates on two different planets. I wanted you to live a happy life, not feel torn between two very different situations."

"You were protecting me?" Darcy asked, the tears slipping free despite her best efforts. "You were willing to live the rest of your life alone just so that I could be happy?"

Steve shrugged a little self-consciously. "I had Bucky for a while. I know how intense things can get when soulmates are separated. I couldn't..." He cut off his words and leaned in to kiss her. "But since you're not Thor's soulmate, and therefore not a princess of Asgard, I'm very happy to claim you as all mine." His smile slipped slightly. "I don't know if Bucky will ever recover fully, but I need to help him."

Darcy nodded rapidly. Being separated from Steve this past couple weeks had been truly awful. She couldn't imagine how Bucky had survived seventy years.

"Let's just find him and bring him home," Darcy said confidently, more comfortable now in her relationship with Steve than she'd ever been before. Steve had willingly walked away when he'd thought it would help her to be happy, and Darcy wouldn't be the person she believed herself to be if she turned Bucky away. She was willing to help any way she could, even if it meant sharing her soulmate.

They'd find a way. It was as simple as that.

"I love you, Darcy," Steve said, holding her close as he stood up and started walking toward their bedroom. "Thank you for being so amazing."

"I love you, too," Darcy said, lifting up his shirt practically before he managed to put her feet on the ground. "Thank you for healing so quickly."

Steve laughed softly, reached for her clothes, and no more words were spoken for a very long while.

~*~

Every time the asset closed his eyes he could see the display at the Smithsonian. Somehow, despite the unbelievable story his target had spun, it was all actually true.

The asset didn't remember James Buchanan Barnes, and other than a few strange snippets of memory that made little sense, he knew only what the displays had told him about Captain America, AKA Steve Rogers, AKA best friend of one fallen hero by the name of "Bucky" Barnes.

The asset was no hero. In fact, the asset was about as far from being a hero as was humanly possible. A part of him understood that it was the words his handlers used that made him compliant and willing to kill on command, but an even larger part believed he should have fought harder to deny their orders.

He glanced down at his hands—one silver, one flesh—and couldn't control the wave of nausea. Even if he hadn't been in control of his own mind at the time, it was still these hands that had carried out the orders, these hands that had pulled the trigger, used the knife, or snapped the neck of his targets. 

He wasn't arrogant enough to believe Hydra would have stopped if they'd failed to control him, but the asset couldn't help but know that the world would have been safer if Bucky Barnes actually had died when he'd fallen from the train.

~*~

_Many months later..._

"Hi, sweetheart," Steve said the moment Darcy answered her phone. "We're on our way home. The trail's gone cold again."

Darcy made a soft noise of disappointment. She wanted her soulmate home with her, but she wanted her soulmate's soulmate home and safe as well. Steve and Sam had been searching for Bucky for months now and every time they managed to track down a location, Bucky had managed to evade them.

It was becoming increasingly obvious that Bucky didn't want to be found. 

"When will you get here?" Darcy asked quietly.

"We're about six hours out," Steve said. He sounded very tired and getting back to the tower around three in the morning was not going to help much. "Don't wait up."

"Yeah, like that's going to happen," Darcy said with a soft laugh, already setting up her blanket nest. She never slept well when Steve was away, but the night he was due home she invariably fell asleep on the couch in front of the TV. She liked to think of it as a kind of compromise. She wasn't  _actually_ waiting up, but going to bed didn't feel right either. At least by dozing in the main room of the apartment, she had the bonus of waking as soon as Steve got home.

Several hours later she woke just enough to realize someone else was in the room.

"Hey, sexy. You gonna take me to bed?"

A sharp hissing noise startled her to fully awake. "What the fuck?" the man asked, holding his arm and staring at the words that were burning into his flesh. She had a moment to register that startling detail before her own arm started to throb as if it was on fire.

Darcy was still busy swearing at the pain and glaring at the swear word now burned permanently in to her skin (yes, she was aware of the irony) when the man pulled a gun and pointed it at her head. Okay, that couldn't be good.

"What did you do to me?"

Darcy shrugged as casually as she could (which, considering the situation wasn't very casual at all, probably looked more like a full body heave) and tried to give him a friendly smile. (And yeah, that was probably not so great either.) She held up her arm, soul words pointing at the guy, and swallowed nervously.

"It looks like we're soulmates."

The man held the gun casually now, but it seemed pretty obvious that he knew exactly what he was doing. He had the same "my weapon is simply an extension of my body" thing that Clint and Natasha had going on. And wow, she'd thought they were the most dangerous people she'd ever met. This guy made them seem like kittens. Okay, maybe not cute, playful kittens. More like kittens with a collection of deadly knives and the ability to use them, but this guy still outshone them.

"What the hell is a soulmate?"

Okay, yeah, that was a new one. Surely he'd have to have lived his life under a rock to not know what a soulmate was. Darcy frowned at the unkempt guy in front of her. "Hobo" really was the best description she could come up with since his hair was long and scruffy, a beard hid most of his face, and his clothes had definitely seen better days. Maybe he actually had lived under a rock...or maybe a bridge.

Or (and she should have thought of this way earlier, stupid brain) maybe he'd lived the last seventy years of his life as a brainwashed assassin who was frozen between missions.

"Bucky?" Darcy asked cautiously. "Are you Bucky Barnes?"

The man frowned, but put his gun away, and nodded slightly. "I think I am. I came looking for"—he hesitated and glanced around the room—"the guy they call Captain America. I think I knew him a long time ago."

"You did," Darcy said, still unsure how to handle this situation. She glanced at the clock and realized that Steve was likely to be home any moment. "JARVIS, can you let Steve know we have a visitor." The last thing they needed was Steve thinking she was in danger. He didn't take chances when it came to her safety. Most days that was a good thing. In this situation the outcome could be traumatizing for all three of them. It took another moment to realize that JARVIS hadn't answered. "J?"

"I disabled the sensors in this apartment," Bucky said, watching her closely as if he expected her to react very badly to that news. "I thought it would be empty."

"Well it's not empty," Darcy said, feeling kind of exasperated. "I'm here."

"I can see that," Bucky said with a grin that did not reach his eyes. "You sleeping with Captain America, doll?"

"I'm Capta— I'm Steve's soulmate," she said, annoyed at the disdain in his tone.

"Thought you said you were my soulmate," he said, holding his arm up and pulling at the material that covered... _the invitation for him to take her to bed_ . Fuck, could this get more embarrassing?

"I  _am_ your soulmate," she said, glaring again at the swear word on her arm. "I'm also his." She pushed the other sleeve up and showed him Steve's words.  _Sorry miss. I didn't see you there._

Bucky smirked. "That sure sounds like something Stevie would say." His accent was pure "Brooklyn." But then as if he'd only just heard it himself, he froze and the look on his face was heartbreaking. "I did know him, didn't I?"

"You did," Darcy said, moving closer, "and you will again. He's your other soulmate too." She frowned at the metal arm when she realized that Bucky probably didn't even know how much he'd lost when he'd lost that limb. "Just let me make a phone call before Tony realizes his AI is offline in this apartment. I really don't need the Avengers busting my door down tonight."

"Yeah," Bucky said, looking haunted, "I'd like to avoid that too."

~*~

Steve's heart was pounding so hard it was a wonder he didn't break a rib. 

Bucky was in his apartment. Alone with Darcy. And as much as Steve wanted to rejoice at the idea of his long-lost soulmate finally being close, he'd seen firsthand the kind of damage the Winter Soldier could do. If Bucky wasn't himself at the moment, his visit could have very dangerous reasons.

"We've got your back, Cap," Clint said, already dressed in his Hawkeye gear, his arrows of the non-lethal variety and his guns replaced with a Night-Night gun (and yes, Steve was aware that SHIELD had changed the name to "Icer" but "Night-Night" was the sort of ridiculous tag that stuck.) Natasha nodded in greeting as she adjusted her Widow's Bites. Tony was wearing the Iron Man suit and Bruce stood off to the side, all of them ready and wiling to protect Darcy while trying not to kill her attacker.

Steve was grateful for each and every one of them. And also  _very_ grateful that Thor was currently off world. He'd shown a startling protectiveness toward the woman who had literally Tazed his ass in his first few minutes on Earth without his powers. Considering that he and Jane had just swapped soul words a few minutes before, their willingness to love and protect Darcy was quite remarkable.

There really was just something about Darcy. Everyone who met her invariably loved her, and since she was surrounded by some of the most dangerous people on the planet she was also extremely well protected.

Except...

"Tony, how did Bucky get into the tower without anyone noticing?" Steve glanced at the ceiling, not quite blaming JARVIS but sort of wondering how the most advanced AI on the planet had missed a man sneaking into the building. Everything in the tower was monitored, even the air-conditioning vents.

"I am still trying to discern Sargent Barnes's exact route, Captain Rogers," JARVIS said, "but preliminary inquiries suggest that he provided false data to my sensors in one of the elevator shafts and the hallway outside your apartment. As you know the only monitoring I do inside your apartment is voice activated. Unless Miss Lewis specifically addresses me, I know nothing of what is going on inside your home." 

Steve was feeling suitably chastised—perhaps privacy was a touch overrated when compared to the risk Darcy now might face—until he remembered that Darcy had called to warn him that JARVIS was not responding because Bucky had switched him off somehow.

"JARVIS, can you check your access to voice command from my apartment?" Steve asked in a low voice as he and the others carefully approached his front door. 

Tony answered directly into the comm system so hopefully only the team heard his answer and not the super soldier on the other side of the door. "The connection to the microphones has been physically cut. I'll have to reconnect them manually and since they're actually inside your apartment..."

Steve nodded his acknowledgment, lifted his shield off his back, and braced himself to blindly enter what could very well be a deadly situation.

~*~

Bucky ran a finger over the words now written on his arm. He'd come here looking for answers and had instead found so much more. Almost by simple word association, as Darcy explained the concept of soulmates to him, images of his life with Steve had begun to filter back into his mind. 

Finally he'd found the key to unlocking the vague memories that had been plaguing him since the incident on the hellicarrier. He doubted he remembered everything, but he remembered Steve. And he remembered parts of their life together.

They'd met as kids, both of them unfortunately old enough to understand the taboo surrounding same-sex soulmates. They'd been best friends, but had hidden their soul words from the rest of the world for many years after that. Once they'd gotten old enough, and the physical attraction between them had been undeniable, they'd taken an apartment together under the guise of being platonic roommates. They'd double dated women whenever they'd felt the need to keep their cover story intact.

Bucky glanced down at the woman cuddled into his side. Despite the horrific things she undoubtedly knew about him she'd insisted on them getting comfortable while they waited for Steve.

He wasn't stupid. Bucky knew that part of her plan was to keep herself between them when Steve and the rest of the Avengers came in the door. Thanks to Darcy's phone call, they might forgo the part where they kicked down the door, but Bucky had no doubt Steve would have backup. And that was as it should be. Darcy was already more important to Bucky than his own life. It seemed reasonable that Steve would feel the same.

Bucky ran a finger over Steve's words on Darcy's arm and couldn't help but smile. Of course the punk would get it right. His words were polite, respectful, and suited the guy he'd always been. Bucky's words, however, could have been a whole lot nicer.

"I'm sorry, doll," he said as he traced his fingers over the words he'd yelled at her. He'd panicked, that was the only explanation, but he regretted that Darcy would have to live with his foul words printed indelibly on her skin.

Darcy laughed, which was the last reaction he'd been expecting. He shifted slightly to see her face. "This," she said, running her fingers over her own arm, "is karma." He raised an eyebrow in a silent demand for an explanation. "You'll understand what I mean when you see the words I said to Steve."

Bucky was about to ask anyway when there was a quiet knock on the apartment door.

"Come in," Darcy called in a singsong tone.

The door opened slowly and Steve stuck his head around it, his shield undoubtedly just out of sight.

"Hey, punk," Bucky said, smiling when he realized how right that greeting felt. Steve quickly took in where Darcy was sitting—practically in Bucky's lap—and made eye contact with her. 

"Darce, could you give me and Bucky a few minutes alone, please?"

Bucky knew that was Steve's polite way of trying to get Darcy out of the middle of what could be a dangerous situation, and quite honestly he was all for it. The lady herself had different ideas.

"No can do, Stevie," she said, laughing softly when Steve's eyes widened at the name Bucky used to call him. "There's a matter the three of us need to discuss."

"Later," Steve said, a soft plea in his voice. "Just a few minutes, Darce."

She shook her head. "You remember that discussion we had a few months ago about you having two soulmates?"

Steve nodded, but it was clear that he was very much on alert and expecting trouble.

"Well it seems that you're not the only one." Darcy lifted Bucky's arm to show Steve her words. He looked at her worriedly, dropped his gaze to read the words on Bucky's arm, and then frowned in her direction.

"In my defense," she said grinning happily, "I was half asleep and thought he was you."

"Uhuh," Steve said, relaxing just a little and grinning at Bucky, "and what lovely phrase did you inscribe on my soulmate?"

"Yeah, about that—" Bucky began, but stopped talking when Steve started to laugh.

"He didn't?"

Darcy nodded sagely. "He did."

Steve seemed ready to sit down and check Darcy's arm before he remembered why he needed to be on high alert. "Buck, are you armed?"

"Just a little bit," he said, not reaching for any of his weapons just in case one of the Avengers had him in their sights. The back of his neck had been itching since Steve had opened the door. He hadn't bothered to close it so there was no doubt his team was ready and waiting in the hallway. "Why don't you invite the others in while I..." He made a vague gesture toward his shoulder holster. It had been such a long time since he'd been unarmed that just the idea made him feel naked. "Ah...while I..."

"It's okay, Buck," Darcy said calmly. "We've all read your file. Armed or not armed isn't going to make a difference, is it?"

Feeling more than a little defeated by that remark—his past was traumatic enough without the humiliation of other people knowing what he'd been through or the horrific things he'd done—Bucky shook his head and tried to ease away from Darcy. She held on like a limpet and refused to let him move.

"Steve," Darcy said, apparently taking over the situation as if she were the one in charge, "get the others in here, and introduce them so that we can get past the awkward stuff quickly."

Steve nodded and did as he was told.

"I'm impressed," Bucky whispered to Darcy, fully aware that with his enhanced hearing Steve could still hear him. "Stubborn punk never listened to me."

Steve shook his head even as he opened the door wider and invited the rest of the Avengers into the apartment.

~*~

_A handful of months later..._

"Good news," Bucky called as he came in the front door. Every day he sounded more and more like the soulmate Steve had known most of his life. He was different in some ways, but that was to be expected. No one could survive what he'd been through without being changed in some pretty fundamental ways. But Steve wasn't the same idealistic kid he'd been back then either. Life and experience, both good and bad, affected everyone.

"Did I hear someone say 'good news'?" Darcy asked as she wandered into the living area. She'd been working nights with Jane for the past week, so she was adorably rumpled and heavy-eyed despite having slept most of the day.

"Sorry, kitten," Bucky said, pulling her in for a warm hug. Steve couldn't resist joining them. "Didn't mean to wake you."

"Was awake," Darcy mumbled, snuggling closer. "What's the good news?"

"I've been cleared for duty." He grinned and leaned over to press a kiss to Steve's lips. "I know there's no obligation to join the Avengers." They'd talked this out over the past couple months, and even though Steve didn't want Bucky thinking that he had to join his fight, he also knew the guy had a protective streak as wide as his own. "But I'd really like to give it a go."

At least if he was an active Avenger, Steve could keep him close. Of course, he might have been happier if Bucky had decided to stay home and learn to knit, but it had to be Bucky's choice. He'd had too many decisions taken away from him thanks to Hydra's schemes. Steve was going to do everything in his power to make sure that never happened again, no matter who was trying to make the decisions for him.

"So the trigger words?" Darcy asked quietly.

"No longer have any effect on me," Bucky answered confidently. Steve might have worried that Bucky was still being manipulated—Hydra had grown within SHIELD without anyone noticing, so apparently  _anything_ was possible—but he trusted Doctor Banner and Tony Stark as much as he trusted himself. If they said Bucky was free from the brainwashing that had ruled his life for too many years, then Steve trusted them to be right.

"So," Darcy said, smiling this time, "I not only managed to bag two super soldiers as soulmates, I'm now having crazy monkey sex with two Avengers." She laughed gleefully. "Suck that middle-school mean girls. I win."

Bucky looked to Steve for a translation. Steve shrugged in response. Darcy rolled her eyes but grinned even harder. She waved away their silent question. "We'll watch the movie and discuss my early development"—she pointed a finger at her own chest—"and the bullies it inspired  _after_ we celebrate Bucky's good news."

"And how should be celebrate, doll?" Bucky asked happily.

Darcy looked down at her sleep rumpled pajamas and then back up to Bucky's face. Her expression was completely wicked as she toyed teasingly with the top button of her shirt. Steve was instantly hard, and judging by Bucky's pained moan, he wasn't the only one.

"Darce," Bucky said, lifting her into his arms to save time getting to the bedroom, "we love the way you think."

And as Steve watched his soulmates strip each other bare, he couldn't help thinking back to the first few months after he'd been unfrozen. He'd been tired and cold, confused and lonely, and almost ready to give up on everything and everyone, but one thing Tony had said to him back then had truly stuck.

_Everything changes._

It was so very true. Change didn't always bring good times, but nothing stayed the same. Life was a continuous cycle of good days and bad and everything in between, and even in the worst depths of despair there was still hope. Steve moved to join his soulmates on the bed and was very glad he'd stuck around long enough to find them both.

  


THE END


End file.
